IRS scheme victim warning others of fraudulent calls

Victim asked for $5,300 in back taxes

An IRS tax scam is targeting innocent people and swindling thousands of dollars out of people’s pockets. The Cincinnati Better Business Bureau has gotten more than 10 calls directly related to the scheme and 300 across the country.

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One 75-year-old woman, who did not want to be identified, said she knew in her gut that the call she received was a hoax, but she was afraid of losing everything.

“He knew all my information. He had my phone number. He had my address. He knew where I lived,” the woman said. “He said they were going to attach all my property, take everything I had and that I would be without a home. I mean that's really scary."

A man posing as an IRS agent called her, saying she owed $5,300 in back taxes from 2008-2011.

The numbers on her caller ID matched the numbers listed for the Milford Police Department and the IRS’s help line.

“He threatened me and he wouldn't let me turn my phone off. He said, ‘We can hear you and we can see you,’” she said.

Then the man posing as the agent started calling her repeatedly -- on her home phone and cellphone -- making threats to send an officer to arrest her.

"He told me to go to Kroger’s and leave my phone on the whole time, so I went to the bank, withdrew the money, went to Kroger’s, bought the green card -- all the while I was on the phone," she said.

She was told to put the money on green money cards but still that wasn't enough and the man posing as the agent told her she still owed another $2,300.

When she went back to the bank, the teller told her that she was the victim of an IRS scheme and she went to the police.

"Unfortunately scammers are out there, trying to get phone calls from the common consumer,” Better Business Bureau representative Sandra Guile said. "The BBB wants to remind consumers the IRS would never call you for something like this. They notify taxpayers and consumers by mail if there is a problem."

The victim said she wanted to tell her story to warn others.

“I don't want it to happen to anybody else."

The victim’s family has contacted Attorney General Eric Holder, The Ohio Attorney General, Miami Township Police, the Better Business Bureau and the FBI.